Some external & Internal Photos would be a great help to give more info as to the age and style of house, ie: building materials used and roof line

thanks guys. ok.. the front porch has a tin roof that adjoins the house. Laundry and toilet at the back also are under the same roof as the house (sorry - so don't know the correct terminology to use here! Bear with me), but are down on ground level on a concrete slab, while the rest of the house is on stumps. Bathroom is in the main part of the house. 4 steps at front and back. Roof is made of - not sure. Walls - mix of asbestos (in kitchen only), horse hair (bedrooms 2 and 3) and plaster. Floors - hardwood with carpet overlay in bedrooms. Porch floors are a different kind of wood (?) and are in need of a bit of repair, but are functional. We're in Brisbane seaside suburb so climate is hot, humid, but we get some sea breezes. We are on a hill, so there is a small (roughly a metre high) retaining wall that surrounds the left and back sides of the house (basically where the bedrooms are). Will attach some photos in next post.

house was built 1954 I think.

Some very rough thoughts for you, remove kitchen wall between it and exisiting living making the kitchen one open plan kitchen dining family with island bench. Dining becomes living.

If possible the carport becomes the master/study ensuite, depending in council,funds and step down which will connect house to carport via enclosed walk way.

Wow as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. It looks like you or a previous owner has already done a lot of updating, which I wouldn't change except the wall between the kitchen/living. And I'am now thinking that any addition would run across the rear of the house. Or replace the carport with an extension to house adding the master/ensuite and study

it's a gorgeous home with lovely garden and well worth upgrading but your proposal adds about 25 sq m of extra floor area but will lose much of the valuable original charm without creating much more usable space eg converting the front verandah would be more expensive than adding a new room of the same size because the old floor, walls, ceiling and roof would have to be completely replaced, the office is too small to be called a fourth bedroom and reduces useable living area and etc...my suggestion includes a simple 36sqm extension with matching wall cladding at the same floor height with a skillion ("flat") roof matching the height and angle of the front verandah and includes two bedrooms and a bathroom..the existing master bedroom is opened up to the old dining area and the backyard, the old living area is a separate lounge or private dining room, the existing baby's room becomes a (small bedroom sized) office... add a new carport (recycle the old carport?) with tall posts to be higher than the kitchen window and towards the rear of the house with covered access through the laundry and the original front verandah (with repairs) and the fabulous palm remain unchanged...despite being a bigger renovation than planned, this extension will be a much better investment, will look more original and can be completed in stages as funds allow ..discuss with builders and real estate agents for quotes and opinions

Oh, the only issue I foresee is that the main bedroom would also block all the nice sun that we currently get on the front porch. Do you think it would look weird to move it all back? Or maybe leave out the bathroom (we don't really feel we need a second one, although I can see how it might benefit resale).

Hi there, what's that we can see to the rear right is it a stadium or something behind or next to you, You could step a master bedroom and ensuite back as per my first very rough sketch with the ensuite facing the street, bed 3 could become a study or not, And opening up between the current dining and master would make a large family/living room, keeping the dining in with the kitchen. You would need to have a door to close the bedroom wing from the living space

if you move the bedroom back you lose most of the space used for the second bedroom but it's possible to make a precise shadow diagram of the impact of the roof shadowing of the porch (do you mean the front porch?) if you can identify the exact angle of the sun along the side boundaries and your exact latitude and longitude (all available on Google earth ) i can make a very rough approximation of shadows and a professional house designer can confirm any approximations... the new extension could have much better sound insulating walls and windows that can improve sound blocking from the road and projecting the master bedroom forward will also help block sound and summer sun without blocking too much sun in cold weather (hang a sheet from the end of the verandah to test shadow patterns)...

Ok thanks again! - latitiude/longitude are:

-27°18'13.2"S

153°03'13.3"E

Sun angle - I think its 345.92 in middle of winter and 288.47 in summer.

Does this sound right? I couldn't find it on google earth so googled and this is what I came up with.

Our living room is so dark at the moment, we rely on every bit of light we can get!

Thanks

That angle is for a 2m structure, which is roughly the height of the porch roof. (It's about 2.4 at the top and angles down).

the angle of north never changes and on your plan you show north as being at the front corner of the house (on the carport side) so i'll try with that for now but the building designer will need to be more precise and, you'd have a new much brighter daytime living area with sliding doors and a nice breeze out to the new back deck and the old living area will be more of a nightime space and dark rooms can be easily improved by installing simple Solar Skylights (check Illume and Arcol brands available at Bunnings)..i'll try the shadow diagrams asap...

much as i've argued with my antique cad program all day it refuses to cooperate and i've been unable to produce the shadow diagrams so you'll have to consider if the potential loss of some sun on the front verandah will be offsett by the improved comfort of the whole house...keeping in mind that a local professional will be able to include these diagrams with greater accuracy...in the meantime i suggest that you ask a local builder for some advice about the most economical extensions ideas